The Differences between Chinese Characters and English Words and Culture-英语专业毕业论文.docx

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1、THE DIFFRENCES BETWEENCHINESE CHARACTERS AND ENGLISH WORDS AND CULTUREACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis. A special acknowledgement should be shown to Professor Cao, from whose lectures I benefited greatly. I am particula

2、rly indebted to teachers and friends, who gave me kind encouragement and useful instructions all through my writing. Finally I wish to extend my thanks to the library assistants who supplied me with reference materials of great value.摘要世界因不同的文化而丰富多彩，生机勃勃，每一种文化都是人类智慧的结晶，在学习各种不同文化的旅程中，可以开阔视野，拓展思维，汲取外夷

3、之长技。文字是记载人类文明的重要工具，也是中西民族传统文化的具体体现。随着时代的发展，中西文化交流融合，越来越多的人掌握了多门语言文字，在熟练运用语言的同时，我们更希望通过文字，口语等深入的了解每个文化的精髓，领略人类伟大的集体智慧。本文选取两个代表性的文字：汉字与英文。通过对比其起源，发展历史，书写工具，写作风格及写作态度，来阐述两种文化的一些差异。随着时代发展，中西文化交流，更多的人接触到不同的文化，在比较文化差异的同时，吸取优秀的文化以提高本名族文化，从而促进文化发展，社会进步。关键词：汉字；英文；文化；书写工具；书写风格。 ABSTRACTCulture consists of act

4、ivities such as the arts and philosophy, which are considered to be important for the development of civilization and of peoples minds. The word is abundant colorful because of different culture. Culture is crystallization of the wisdom human. Characters which are important instrument to record huma

5、n culture are the concrete reflection of the differences of cultural background between China and western countries.These paper select two representative characters: Chinese characters and English words. The following are some comparisons of their origin, historical development, writing tools, writi

6、ng style, writing attitude. From these we can know differences of culture between China and western countries. With the development, cultural exchange, more people are attaching different cultures, cultural differences, while in comparison; outstanding cultural lessons can improve the national cultu

7、re, thereby promoting cultural development and social progress.KEY WORDS: Chinese character; English words; culture; writing instruments; writing style. TABLE OF CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.iiABSTRACT IN CHINESE.iiiABSTRACT IN ENGLISH.ivTABLE OF CONTENTS.vCHAPTER 1The origin and development of characte

8、rs81.1The origin and development of Chinese characters81.1.1Characters created by Cang Jie81.1.2 Writing brush invented by Men Tian101.2The origin and development of English words111.2.1The origin and development of English words111.2.2The history of pen12CHAPTER 2The culture differences between Chi

9、nese characters and English words132.1Writing style and thought142.1.1 Implicit in Chinese characters142.1.2 Direct in English words152.2 The material of writing instrument with life152.2.1 The material of brush and the harmony with nature152.2.2 The material of pen and technology162.3 Life attitude

10、 in the usage of writing instrument172.3.1 Self-cultivation brush172.3.2 Practical pen18CHAPTER 3Conclusion3.1 Conclusion183.2 The future of Chinese characters and western words19Notes20Bibliography21The Differences between Chinese Characters and English Words and CultureCHAPTER 1 The origin and dev

11、elopment of charactersThe extent or ones vocabulary becomes a measure of intellect. Knowledge about the history of our words is a valuable asset. Understanding how words have developed can teach us a great deal about our cultural history. Finally, word stories are often both entertaining and thought

12、 provoking. As any youngster can tell you, words arefun.As it known, words are the important part of culture. It is regarded as bridge between history and real. It transforms plenty of culture information, for example, geography, religion, and custom. People inject their spirits and personality into

13、 words. As time go on, people and culture are changing, so do the words.1.1 The origin and development of Chinese characters 1.1.1Characters created by Cang Jie As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played a significant role in the development of Chinese culture. It als

14、o constitutes the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. Unlike ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian symbols, Chinese characters remain today which are the mostwidely adoptedwriting systems nowadays.“The most sophisticated and earliest Chinese characters are the inscriptions on to

15、rtoise shells and animal bones calledJiaguwenof the Shang Dynasty (17th-11th century BC). ” But who invented Chinese characters?1There is a beautiful story about inventing characters. It is said that Cang Jie invented Chinese characters. After the Yellow Emperor unified China, he terribly dissatisfi

16、ed with his rope knot tying method of recording information which is inconvenience and obscure. Hence the Yellow Emperor charged Cang Jie to create characters. Cang Jie worked day and night; however, he can not create even just one character. One day, Cang Jie walked on the bank in order to release

17、pressure. Suddenly, he saw a phoenix flying in the sky, carrying an object in its beak. The object fell to the ground directly in front of Cang Jie, and he saw it to be an impression of a hoof-print. Not being able to recognize which animal the print belonged to, he asked for the help of a local hun

18、ter. The hunter told him that this was, assuredly, the hoof print of aPixiu, being different from the hoof-print of any other beast alive. His conversation with the hunter greatly inspired Cang Jie, leading him to believe that if he could capture in a drawing the special characteristics that set apa

19、rt each and every thing on the earth, this would truly be the perfect kind of character for writing. From that day forward, Cang Jie paid attention to the characteristics of every thing, including the sun, moon, stars, clouds, lakes, oceans, as well as all manner of bird and beast. He began to creat

20、e characters according to the special characteristics he found, and before long, had compiled a long list of characters for writing. To the delight of the Yellow Emperor, Cang Jie presented him with the complete set of characters. The emperor then called the premiers of each of the nine provinces to

21、gether in order for Cang Jie to teach them this new writing system. Monuments and temples were erected in Cang Jies honor on the bank of the river where he created these characters. Histories once tried to prove whether there was a person named Cang Jie in the history, and if there was one, when he

22、lived, but they failed to draw a conclusion due to lack of irrefutable proofs.Evidently the legend of Cang Jie created Chinese characters cannot be accepted as the truth, for any script can only be a creation developed bythe people to meet the needs of social life over a long period of trial and exp

23、eriment. Chinese characters are a huge and complicated system, and it could only come into being after a long period of creation and development.1.1.2 Writing brush invented by Men TianThe history of writing instruments by which humans have recorded and conveyed thoughts, feelings and grocery lists,

24、 is the history of civilization itself. This is how we know the story of us, by the drawings, signs and words we have recorded.The writing brush is a functional handicraft article peculiar to China, an instrument still used by its pupils in calligraphy and painting exercises.“The first writing brush

25、, according to legend, was made by Men Tian, a general under the First Emperor of Qin (259-210 B.C.),” long time in command of the troops stationed along the Great Wall. 1After Qin Shi Huang conquered all the six states, he asked Men Tian to attack the Xiongnu people. So, Men Tian had to report to t

26、he Emperor a lot, and back then, he had to carve on bamboo slips. It was a hard and time-consuming job. And since so many things needed to be written down, no one could write them fast enough.One day, Men Tian strolled. He took his generals sword tassel, which dropped and marked on the ground. .This

27、 phenomenon inspired Men Tian.He dipped the things in ink, and wrote it on the bamboo. It was like, so much faster and so he asked everybody to make one so they could write faster and send the Emperor messages.After that, Men Tians soldiers hunted the fur of animals and wolves to make brushes as wel

28、l. Normally, theyd tie bamboo to the fur, but there was no bamboo. So they improvised and tied the fur to wooden sticks.Actually, archaeological finds have given the lie to this story. “Traces on the painted pottery unearthed at the ruins of the Neolithic site of Banpo Village near Xian show that th

29、e brush in its crude, primitive form was used 6,000 years ago.” 3But people still called Men Tian who may have improved upon the brush the originator of the writing instrument. 1.2 The origin and development of English words1.2.1The origin and development of English wordsUnlike the history of Chines

30、e characters, English words dont have a funny legend about its origin. However, just like the science, law, medicine, and the social sciences. English has borrowed words from other languages. New words have entered (and continue to enter) the English in all kinds of different ways. There are several

31、 common ways.Borrowing: “most of the vocabularies used in modern English have been borrowed from other languages. And most of English words come from Latin and Greek, English has borrowed words from more than 300 different languages. There are a few examples: “muscle (Latinmusculus, mouse); slogan (

32、alteration of Scotsslogorne, battle cry).Clippingor Shortening：“some new words are simply shortened forms of existing vocabularies. For instance: examfromexamination, flufrominfluenza, andfaxfromfacsimile.”Compounding: “a new word may also be created bycombiningtwo or more existing words:fire engine

33、, andbabysitter.”Blends: “ablend(also called aportmanteau word) is a word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words. For instance:moped, from mo (tor) + pedal, andbrunch, from breakfast+ lunch.”Transfer ofProper Nouns: “the names of people, places, and things become genera

34、lized vocabulary words. For instance, the nounmaverickwas derived from the name of an American cattleman, Samuel Augustus Maverick. Thesaxophonewas named afterSax, the surname of a 19th-century Belgian family that made musical instruments.”Imitation of Sounds: “words are also created byonomatopoeia,

35、 naming things by imitating the sounds that are associated with them:boo, bow-wow, tinkle, and click.”21.2.2 The history of penWestern pen could be traced back to theEgyptians.The Egyptianculture haveunparalleled accomplishments，especially the contribution of invented a reedbrush.So it became human

36、cultural heritagescarrier.Reedbrushes are fluent, simple writing instrument originated in their pursuit of faster writingmethods,which is the originator of the modern writing instrument.In the world, there is another culture - ancientGreece,the writing instruments that they use are more rigid than t

37、he brush of Egypt.Their reed pen is made form a kind of plants crust.This pen nibis very hard,with iron, wooden nib,is so easy to write on theboard. Hence it wasadopted by many places, and soon was exported toEgypt.Quill as a writing tool records every stage of European civilization from medieval to

38、the 19thcentury AD. Inthatperiod,almost all of the articles of scholarly works (includingreligion, philosophy, literature, history, science, medicine, business andmanagement) recorded by quills.However, the origin of the first quill already impossible tobe verified,but these quills have great value,

39、and were widely used by people.Why such a quill won the peoplesfavorite? Because when you use aquill,itdoes not require much skill. And in the writingprocess,people can freely control the thickness of thefont.However,the quill is notperfect,it also has drawbacks.Once the quill had used for a long ti

40、me,the tip would bebald,then quill would beuseless,so each pen was shortlife,the loss was too large.In1829,Englishman James has successfully developed a pentip,the tip of thepen,which is speciallyprocessed,is smooth and elastic, writing is prettysmooth。Itis welcomed by the people.However, this inven

41、tion is not only easy to overcome the disadvantages of wearingnib, but also must be dipped in ink. So itis still very troublesome.British Brahmamadeimprovements on the basis of previousstudies. Hemade a silverpen,and then put the ink in the penandlet it flow from thetip,which can continue to bewritt

42、en. Itseems to overcome this dip ink shortcomings.However,the ink always losescontrol,outflow from the pen body in someways,is particularly vulnerable to mess the paper,and even caused many unpredictable consequences.So Brahma made improvementsinthe pen, filled the ink with apipe,at the tip is a thi

43、n metal needles attachtocontrol the flow of theink. However,ink leakages still exist. That is not completely solved theproblem,still affecting peoples written work.There is a story about thepen, accelerated the birth of the pen.A clerkwon hardly a good big business competition with several counterpa

44、rts.However when signing thecontract,he handed customer a Waterman fountain penfine,asked him to sign.Just pick up a pen to sign,pen ink dripped a largemarks,the contract was dirty.Just when Waterman hurriedly go back to get a newcontract,his rivals already signed this good big contract with thecust

45、omer,stole a considerable amount of this business. Such failure brought a lot ofstimulations to Waterman.he determined to design a fountain pen which able to control freely.Afterfouryears,Waterman had summed up experiences of previousfailuresand finally invented the usefulness fountainpen in1884.Thi

46、s pen not only overcomes the defects nib easily towear,but also effectively makes the ink flow freely.CHAPTER 2The culture differences between Chinese characters and English words2.1Writing style and thought Chinese and western ways of thinking show great differences which have influenced writing st

47、yles a large extent. The main characteristics of Chinese way of thinking are implicit and indicate. It turns out that Chinese people are used to imagery thinking. Imagery thinking results in that most Chinese people are good at synthesizing, analyzing and transformation of memory thing to new image.Another prominent trait of Chinese way of thinking is experimentalism. A large number of Chinese people tend to depend on intuition and experiences to consider problems. Different from western characters, Chinese way of thinking emphasizes wholeness or the masses. Thus, when personal int